Our Story

Military Youth Camping Association was founded in 2016 by Krista Canfield, a military wife of 28 years and mother of two. She saw a clear need for action when hundreds of military members were deployed from Oregon for over a year, leaving their families behind. Drawing from her own experience, she knew that deployments were extremely hard on the family unit and sought to provide

support to military families through sending their kids to camp.

The initial goal was to encourage military kids to spend time outdoors while connecting them with others who shared the same life experience of growing up in a military family. Being raised with so many variables and changes within the home (from moving consistently and leaving behind friendships to naturally acquiring more responsibility during deployments) can feel isolating and

take its tole emotionally and physically over time, therefore, we created a solution with MYCA.

Not only were the children given greater opportunity, but our program also offered the parent who stayed home a

sponsored week of child care and a chance to reset for themselves. 

​

The first year,. our program was extremely successful and we were able to send 18 kids to Camp Tamarack for a week and provided the opportunity for those same kids to return with their whole family the next year when their deployed family member had returned. This gave the families the opportunity to reconnect within a peaceful environment with no distractions after a long year away. 

​

We learned from our first 2 years just how valuable the gift of camp truly is based on the reaction we had from the children, the growth that we witnessed and the joy we shared. We are thrilled to continue offering our support in this specific way to more and more military families.